Category Archives: Samuel

Bible 911 – 1 Samuel

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1 Samuel 9:11 And as they went up the hill to the city, they found young maidens going out to draw water, and said unto them, Is the seer here? (KJV)

This verse segways from a donkey hunt to the anointing of a king. Chapters 9 and 10 should not be just a Sunday School story, but a lantern lighting our minds to the power and glory of Father God. There is a lot of geography, customs, and additional characters in this story. So, please do not impose modern paradigms on the ancient peoples in this tale that is proclaiming God’s sovereignty.

The Main Participants  

  • Servant – I did a post on Saul’s unnamed servant because he is the clear-minded God-aware light early in this story. He is used by God to get Saul into position for his anointing.
  • Saul – He was a complex person. In his introduction, we see him as an obedient son who accepts God’s plan for his life. The end of his story is another thing altogether. Saul | The amazing name Saul: meaning and etymology (abarim-publications.com)   One form of the Hebrew word for Saul means grave, that is just extra:)
  • Samuel – The last Judge of Israel was also a seer/prophet. He had many great accomplishments in his long life.

Seer – This is the gem I found in this Bible 911 study. Verse 9 gives a cultural change in Israel. Seer or ro’eh is part of the word for a shepherd. The prophet or navi carries the idea as “a source” of God’s words. If Samuel is a transition figure, we can see him leading and caring for the people and he starts to write the story of Israel. (It makes you think who compiled the Book of Judges?) I found these sites to help with the study, I do not always use Christian sites and I have no connection with any of these. They are just informative.

IsraelBiblicalStudies.com

Ro’eh – Shepherd – En-Gedi Resource Center (engediresourcecenter.com)

Ra’ah: The LORD is my SHEPHERD – Hebrew Word Lessons

What Is the Meaning of Navi? – The Jewish Link

The Tribe of Benjamin

The progenitor of this tribe is the second-born son of Rachel and the thirteen child of Jacob. He is the only son who was born in the Land of Promise. He also had his name changed, which in the Bible is important. Benjamin, the Tribe, stays with Judah after Rehoboam divides Israel in 1 Kings 12. Esther is a member of the Tribe that was deported out of Israel, she is also a granddaughter of Saul.

The last event in the Book of Judges plays a part in the life of Saul and his children. Lo Debar is in the region where some of the wives for Benjamin came from, which may explain why Jonathan had Mephibosheth sent there. The story of Barzillai (2 Samuel 17:27) is a part of this connection with Jonathan and David. I can not prove this, but I think Barzillai was related to Mephibosheth through his mother’s side of the family.

Many cities and sites in Samuel are located in the territory of Benjamin. Jerusalem is in this area of inheritance and the Prophet Jeremiah’s hometown is a city allotted to the priest in the land of Benjamin. 

The City

Please use these as points of study.

  • “Drinking Water” – In this story the girls were out of the town going to draw water for the day. Why might wells or springs be outside of the city walls? Key words here will be springs, wells, and cisterns; these may change with your favorite translation.
  • City on a Hill – Major towns may have had walls, but they were also on top of hills. Can you find other towns or cities that were on a hill?
  • High Places – These definitely have a pagan connection; groves are another term associated with pagan worship. Since Samuel was sacrificing here it seems not all were pagan. At the time of this story, there was no Temple, but Shiloh was where the Ark was. Abraham, Elijah, and Solomon, and others have stories set around hilltop sites. In your study, please note that God found many of these places a snare to His people, why?
  • A Roof – This is in 9:25. Find the times that roofs were part of the action for people in the Bible.

Sling to Head or KE to PE

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Sling to Head was launched from a comment in “The Bible and Science” series. I think the person who commented needed more than my metaphorical look at Newton’s First Law. I agree that I could add a little more science to the post.  This contribution still has a fair amount of metaphor in it because that is what I want to write.

1 Samuel 17:49 is the bullseye for my example of converting kinetic energy to potential energy. To make a solid hit, I will talk mainly about the stone once it is released from its sling by David. Like many motion problems, there is more than one thing that could be looked at.  

What gave the stone its kinetic energy? David rapidly rotated his sling, a strap with an area that held the stone. Long, long ago I did see a video of someone who constructed an experiment to test this feat. I remember the conclusion as positive; you could be that accurate and the stone could hit with enough force to break a bone.

The rotational speed of the sling was given to the stone at the moment of release. That is all of the kinetic energy it would have. Since it was probably a short distance to Goliath’s head speed lost to friction would be minimal. When it impacted the skull, its momentum allowed for the KE to be transferred until it came to rest and achieved potential energy. You may debate friction transfer and heat loss all you want.

Did David have help? Yes. Did an angel guide the stone? That I cannot answer, but it may have happened. It is also possible that Goliath’s head was held until the stone hit. Okay, the help I see is the anointing that David received from Samuel (16:13). He had the Spirit given to him and He stayed with David for his whole life. My take on 1 Samuel 16 is different from the popular version that has been circulated.

A fearful Samuel created panic in a troubled Jesse. David was out in the field, who knows where and Samuel was in a hurry. David should have been young, under fifteen and very likely twelve. He was just learning to read the Torah (sorry no bar mitzvah). It also makes sense that there were several years between 16:13 and 16:14. I believe that after the Oil was applied, he went from just a kid to the future king. His talents were magnified, and his abilities soared; he was better at slinging stones, music, leadership, and annoying his brothers.

A little metaphor – You are the stone in the hands of the King. With every spin in His sling, you gain speed with a direction (velocity) until He releases you at your giant. When the job is finished and the giant is brought down, He will give you rest until you are needed again.

The Poles of the Ark and the Philistines

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1 Samuel 4 through 6 tells the story of the Philistines capturing the Ark of the Covenant. For them to even put it on a cart they had to use the poles that were part of the Ark. In my other post, I explain why I think those poles represent the Holy Spirit. God allowing His Ark to be captured has always puzzled me and my study of the Poles really stirred a lot of questions. (Please read 1 Samuel 4-6 as I am not trying to tell the whole story.)

The first time the Ark was moved in this story. The army of Israel had been beaten by the Philistines. The elders decided to bring the Ark into the battle. Yes, Joshua marched it around Jericho, but God had told him to do it. I am not sure God liked being used as a good luck charm; it is bad luck to be superstitious. The idea may sound like a good one, but God had not told them to take His Ark into battle. Since Eli had sent Hophni and Phinehas with the Ark let us assume that Levities of the Kohath clan moved it on their shoulders and that the cover was over it.

Points to think about.

  1. This seems to be God’s plan to rid Israel of Eli and his sons.
  2. The High Priesthood changed hands that day because Eli’s grandsons were too young for service.
  3. Samuel was a prophet not a priest, he was not a son of Aaron. I have never found an adoption cause for being a Levitical priest.
  4. There were other Sons of Aaron who served. We see both families during David’s reign. As the number of men grew certain tasks were chosen by lot. Remember Zechariah, John’s father.
  5. Shiloh was still important, but the Ark did not return there.

The Ark was moved by the Philistines. Israel lost; the battle, two corrupt priests, and God. The Philistines had God and they were not going to give Him back; it took seven months and a lot of misery for them to change their minds. Two cities were hit hard by a plague and the third city did not want the Ark. See my post on rats for a possible tumor that may have cause agony.

From the battle field to Dagon’s temple and to other cities the Philistines probably used a cart, any cart. But someone still had to pick it up and take it off that cart. They had to use the Poles, that was the only part of the Ark that non-priest could touch and they were not Kohaths. (Hold this thought.)

What happened to the three layers of covers for the Ark when it was being moved? The covers are never mentioned. You would think that they were over it in Israel. Had some of the rules gone by the wayside? (It seems that Samuel slept close to the Ark. That should not have been allowed. David and his team did not know how to move it.) I cannot imagine the Philistines not wanting to take a look at the God they had captured. So, between no cover and touching the Poles, no wonder the Philistines started dying. If Israel had disrespected the Ark by not having it covered that may be another reason they lost the battle.

Numbers 4 tells of God’s concern for the Kohaths and what Aaron and sons had to do to protect them. We know that Uzzah disrespected the Ark by touching it when the ox stumbled-2 Samuel 6:6 and 1 Chronicles 13:9. So, why did God not “break out” against every Philistine that touched the Ark? How about one big teachable moment for two nations. I think this psalm says it well – Psalm 74:22 Arise, O God, plead thine own cause: remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily. (KJV) Plead could be replaced with defend, and reproacheth could be talks about. The Philistines still attacked Israel, but I am sure they wanted nothing to do with God or the Ark. Israel had to learn to take the promises of God with them into battle and not a good luck charm. Jesus, Peter, and Paul experienced God rising against those who disrespected God’s cause-the soldiers fell down, Ananias and Sapphira died, and Elymas was blinded for a time.

From the Philistines to Jerusalem – Chapter 5 was a bad time for the Philistines, by #6 they were thinking that the God of Israel was very powerful. Not wanting to accept that they constructed a test and a peace offering. I knew the “new cart” was a sign of respect, but it makes more sense if they had been moving it on any cart they had or carrying it by the Poles. The cows added a level beyond their natural world, those cows would not have been contented walking away from the calves. The leaders were happy and they could get back to making the Israelites miserable as long as they left their God out of it.

The sad story is that the Levities had to learn a hard lesson about respecting their God and the rules that applied to them and their life. Beth Shemesh was a Levite town, they should have known better than to look in the Ark of God. Why did they do it? Maybe they thought that the Philistines had gotten away with peeking, or Shiloh had farther-reaching fingers than we thought, (Eli had not taken care of business and things happened.) or they just had to check that nothing was taken. Seventy men died, that may have been the majority of men in that town.    

Kiriath Jearim was called, they were a town of priests. Even though priests are from the clan of Kohath, I am not sure they should carry the Ark. But if it was covered and the Poles were on their shoulders it had to be better than a cart.    

Towns with all Levities and all priest was part of the agreement with God for being chosen to serve the Tabernacle and the Ark. So, to extend that idea Eleazar was a priest and he now had Eli’s job. (Eleazar was a “priestly” name.) It seems the Ark stayed there a long time-twenty-plus years before Saul became king, all of Saul’s reign, and however long David let it stay in Kiriath Jearim/Baalah of Judah. (Just because-No, I do not think the Ark sat outside on a hill.)

Just because their story is not told, where did the Table and the Lampstand go? Were they left in Shiloh or moved away? David got bread from the Table at Nob, but there was no mention of the Ark in that story. You hope the articles of the Tent were united in Solomon’s Temple.

In 2 Samuel 6 David is on a mission to bring the Presence of God to him in Jerusalem. It seems that the knowledge of the proper way of moving the Ark was lost or ignored. Instead of using the Poles and having Levities carry the Ark, David copies the Philistines and puts them on a cart. Someone died. You have to know there were committee meetings and scroll searches but David finally got it right and he moved the Ark to Jerusalem. Again, there is no mention of the rest of the Tabernacle. It seems that David moved the sacrifices away from the Ark. (So many questions and few answers, sorry.)

My purpose was to explore why the Philistines could move the Ark. Another question soon appeared. What happened to Israel and the Ark?

Israel – These are just some musings.

  • Your thoughts and plans may not be God’s plans and desires. The elders had a “thought’ but they did not ask God or the High Priest.
  • The Book of Judges ended with a dark tale of doing what you think is right. This is an extension of that.
  • The Father holds His children to a higher standard than the Philistines. We should not act like them.
  • You can follow rules and not have your heart right with God. The Levities had forgotten the rules.
  • I believe there was a remnant, a “seven thousand” who still wanted God.

Philistines –

  • God will use whom he needs to for His plan to work. Their “victory” did not mean they were right.
  • Their pride brought their downfall. Would you have given back the Ark after the second time Dagon fell?
  • They treated Jehovah as they did their idols. God did not strike them dead immediately, like Uzzah, but rats, plague, and panic came and did their jobs.
  • The Philistines touched the Poles (the Holy Spirit) and disrespected the Ark of the Covenant of God. He took His vengeance.

Wow. My study spread out into areas I did not expect. Israel proved herself from the beginning to the end of this tale. Then it took twenty years for Samuel to spark a renewal. The Philistines were being Philistines, they hated God’s children before, during, and after touching the Poles of the Ark, the Father gave them a chance and they did not take it.

David—Samuel to Goliath

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I am going to paint a slightly different picture about the period in David’s life that started with Samuel and extends to him meeting Goliath. This period has gotten much attention in the last few years, mainly because picking on Jessie has become popular. I read a morning devotion that rightly said David defeated Goliath because he had a winning attitude. What Brother Prince did not mention was the anointing of David’s life (July 7th in Destined to Reign). God, in His wisdom, did not fill in a lot of details. So, tradition and agenda have stepped in and colored much of this story. Anyway, here is my not-so-traditional view on some of 1 Samuel 16 and 17.

Samuel—The anointing of David was as much of a test for Samuel as it was about replacing Saul. His choosing a different king would not look good on his resume and that resume would try to kill him. It is not too hard to see that Samuel was nervous, and he passed this to Jesse to get his family together quickly for this sacrifice/feast/rebellion against Saul. I would bet that waiting for David to be found and brought in from a distance pasture did not make his morning.

Jesse—Please see the post-Cut Jesse Some Slack. I will go out on a limb here and say that Jesse was not only a man of means but possibly the leader of the tribe of Judah. 1 Chronicles 2 has the family tree of Judah and it runs right to Jesse and his sons. Given that David and Solomon were kings while this was being written/edited, that might make sense. It may also show that Jesse was a tribal leader. There is a difference in the number of sons of Jesse in 1 Samuel and 1 Chronicles. In Samuel, David was the eighth son. In Chronicles, they listed him as number seven. A child dying may account for this difference, but we do not know.

Eliab and the other sons—Eliab is the firstborn, which meant a lot in terms of inheritance and the grooming Jesse would give him to be the leader of the family and possibly the tribe. Chapter 17 has more about his “older brother syndrome”. To be fair to him, it must have been hard to have his baby brother anointed king, in front of him, and he would just lead the family. Jonathan uses him as the excuse for David missing the feast day with King Saul. I am sure it was hard on all the brothers to watch David excel in the things he did because of the anointing. David is out in the field tending the sheep was a family duty that all of them had done in their day. All of them had to go on the run with David as Saul started hunting him down-they joined him in the cave/stronghold.

David—The youngest child of a shepherd. In their day, every son had done his time tending the sheep (Remember Rachel and Moses’ wife); it was part of growing up in a family of shepherds. It seems this task went to the youngest child when they were ready. When this rite of passage occurred may have been different for everyone, but David may have started very early. He could have been as young as twelve at his anointing. (Young men could have publicly read Torah around twelve years old. Bar mitzvah and synagogues were not a thing in Israel during his lifetime.) (Was David a Priest)

My picture really starts here. I believe David was young at his anointing and that there are several years between 1 Samuel 16: 13 and verse 14. Seven to ten years is good for me. That would make David nineteen to early twenties when he entered Saul’s service and faced Goliath. (The marriage offer of Saul’s first daughter comes into my thinking.)

So, what was David doing in these years before he came to Saul’s attention? With the anointing now affecting his life, he would kill the lion and the bear. He learned he was special and could be fearless because he was the “head and not the tail”. The brothers saw and knew that the horn of oil from Samuel had made a difference.

David grew up as a musician. Psalm 23 would reflect these “quiet years” in his life very well. He may have penned Psalm 29 while he sheltered in a field watching his flocks. I see a future king writing Psalm 101 as he wonders about his future life. His thoughts as he tended sheep can be seen in other psalms, like #86.

El Shaddai supplied those years for him to grow. From verse 14 to Goliath continued that learning cycle because David and “his time” was not yet ready. He learned about the duties of a king and the daily life in that environment when he played his harp. As an armourbearer, they trained him in warfare and tactics.

Goliath—To stay with the steps of being trained, Goliath was just the next step up in his lesson cycle of foes. As a shepherd, I can’t think he never battled wolves. But the lion and bear would get everyone’s attention. So, defeating the man-mountain was like Saul rescuing the city of Jabesh Gilead (possibly where his mother’s family came from). These acts put both Saul and David on the map and into the public’s eye. Between the anointing and the years of practice guarding his sheep, Goliath never had a chance. Now extend this to hundreds of men for the bride’s price, saving cities, defeating raiding parties, to entire armies and nations as the king.

David, growing with his anointing from Samuel to defeating Goliath, should remind us that God has His plan and time for each of us to be used.

Thoughts

  • Jesus was twelve at the Temple.
  • I wonder what the feast was like after Samuel chose David over all of his brothers. Do you think Jesse made him go right back into the fields that day?

The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament – David

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Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.  1 Samuel 16:13 (KJV, bold added)

The word here for “came upon” is tsȃlach.  It seems that the Holy Spirit stayed with him and did not depart.  If we substitute the main uses of the word of tsȃlach; God prospered David all of his life, and it is not a problem to see that blessing throughout his life.

At first, it bothered me that the Holy Spirit is mentioned just six times in connection with David, but He is mentioned less with Moses!  Then I realized that it is in perfect harmony with the Holy Spirit.  His primary purpose is to bring attention to Jesus, not Himself.  So even though David, the writer, was led by the Spirit; the Spirit had him write about Jesus in the Psalms.

Below are the six verses that directly connect David and the Spirit.  I put them into a timeline in David’s life, even though the middle four do not have a defined time stamp in reference to the others.  Read the whole reference so that the verses are in context, I think they will show growth in knowing and understanding the importance of the Spirit in David’s walk with God.

  • 1 Samuel 16: 13 (the coming upon)
  • Psalm 139: 7 (a song of praise and thanks) To put this into after he acted crazy to escape the Philistines when he was hiding from Saul.
  • Psalm 51: 11 (Bathsheba and his cries for the Spirit to not leave him like He did Saul)
  • Psalm 143: 10 (a cry for mercy) If I would guess where/when this was written; I would put this during the time when David was running from Absalom after he crossed the Jordan near Lo Debar.
  • 1 Chronicles 28: 12 (plans for the Temple)
  • 2 Samuel 23: 2 (last words)

When you read about David’s life; we tend to think he was anointed by Samuel and then went to work for Saul right away.  If there was a gap then his ability to kill the lion and the bear compares very well to that of Samson, when the Spirit came upon him.